BEIRUT, Dec 27 (Reuters) – The international envoy seeking a
solution to Syria’s 21-month-old conflict said on Thursday
political change was needed to end the violence which has killed
44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule
until elections.

Speaking in Damascus at the end of a five-day trip during
which he met President Bashar al-Assad, Lakhdar Brahimi did not
spell out detailed proposals but said that only substantial
change would meet the demands of ordinary Syrians.

BEIRUT, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss
proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by
international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources
said.

Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a
series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in
Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of
power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.

BEIRUT, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
despatched a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss
proposals made by envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to end the conflict
convulsing his country, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

Brahimi, who met Assad on Monday as part of a series of
planned talks with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus
this week, is trying to arrange a peaceful transfer of power,
but has disclosed little about how this might be achieved.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi pursued mediation efforts in Damascus on Tuesday, but there was no pause in the bloodletting as Syrian Christians marked a bleak Christmas Day with prayers for peace.

“We are here in a cave that symbolizes Syria right now,” said a priest standing beside a nativity scene in a grotto.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi discussed solving the country’s conflict with President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, but the opposition expressed deepening frustration with the mission following what it called the latest massacre of civilians.

Underlining how rebels are taking the battle close to Assad’s doorstep, the U.N. and Arab League envoy had to drive to Damascus from Lebanon on the eve of the meeting as fighting around the international airport made it impossible to fly in.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air strike on a bakery in Syria’s central Hama province on Sunday, activists said, with some reporting up to 200 dead.

“There is no way to really know yet how many people were killed. When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground. There were women and children,” said Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in the town of Halfaya, where the strike hit. “There are also dozens of wounded people”

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels thrust into a strategic town in Syria’s central Hama province on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a string of territorial gains to help cut army supply lines and cement a foothold in the capital Damascus to the south.

They have made a series of advances across the country, seizing several military installations and more heavy weaponry, hardening the threat to President Bashar al-Assad’s power base in Damascus 21 months into an uprising against his rule.